Stabilization of ships by means of liquid filled tanks



Dec. 17, 1935. H. HORT 2,024,822

STABILIZATION OF SHIPS BY MEANS OF LIQUID FILLED TANKS Filed March 27,1954 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LIQ UID FILLED TANKS Hermann Hort,Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany,

assignor to Siemens Germany Apparate und Maschinen Gym. b. H., Berlin,Germany,

a corporation of Application March 27, 1934, Serial No. 717,562 InGermany March 29, 1933 4 Claims.

This invention relates to the stabilization of ships by means of liquidfilled tanks, arranged along the sides of the ship.

According to one feature of the invention a first pair of transverselyopposed main tanks is provided in combination with a delivering device,

1. e. a blower, for propelling the liquid masses of these tanks inaccordance with the roll of the ship so as to damp known manner the therolling motion. In a Well delivering device may also be used forpropelling the liquid masses of the tanks more and more to one side ofthe ship when the ship assumes a constantly inclined position due towind, unsymmetrical cargo or the like, in order to compensate thisinclination of the ship.

However as the tank stabilizing devices are very tion to the wholeliquid masses of the normal small in relacapacity of the ship, these fordamping the periodic ship but not sufficient for compensating theaforesaid inclined middle position due to wind or the like.

Although the delivering device, propelling the damping massesperiodically in accordance with the rolling from one side to the other,is

large enough to drive gradually large masses sufficient for compensatinga constant inclination of the ship into the tank of the upwards inclinedside, nevertheless such compensation is still impossible as the dampingmasses are too small.

In order to obviate this to a further feature of the ing masses may beliquid masses such as oil, serving as disadvantage according inventionthe dampaugmented at will by further fuel for the power enginesof theship, and, usually being contained in tanks, are arranged the aforesaidthe periodic rolling oppositely interconnected by spaces of the tanks,

tanks near the cording to this invention those or which for conveniencesides of the ship. Ac-

similar tanks, may be termed auxiliary on each side of the ship nearmain tanks, serving for damping of the ship and controlled by The liquidspaces of the conducting pipes, the air arranged along the same side ofthe ship being also interconnected by pipes to the air space of the maintank on the corresponding side of the ship.

These latter air pipes are of relatively small diameter and preferablyare provided with valves for shutting off these pipes in order to make pp,

tanks as long as sure that the blower or other pair of main tanks in theauxiliary always altered in sympathy withthe rolling of the ship butwill also propel the liquid masses of these auxiliary tanks, as soon asthe pump acts to constantly drive the liquid masses to the upwardsinclined side of the ship in order to compensate a constant inclinationof the ship.

The invention will be better understood from the following descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is across sectional view of the vessel with the two tanks connected.directly to the de- 10 livering device;

Figure 2 is a plan view upon the middle part of the ship with the wholestabilizing system.

Near the middle of the ship there is provided a rolling tank-system of awell-known type, con- 15 sisting of the two tanks 1 and 2 oppositelypositioned on each side of the ship. These tanks may be water-filled,the liquid spaces being interconnected by the conducting pipe 3 and theair spaces by the conducting pipe 4. In this pipe 4 a two- 20 way cock4a is provided, actuated in accordance with the rolling of the ship andconnecting the blower 5, drivenby the constantly running motor 6, to theone or the other tank I or 2 as the case may be.

According to the invention, besides each tank I and 2 there areprovided'along the hull of the ship auxiliary tanks 1, 'l, 8, 8", 9, 9",l0 and I0". These auxiliary tanks may be preferably filled with oil,serving as fuel for the power ongines of the ship or for similarpurposes. Each pair of oppositely positioned tanks 1, l" respectively8', 8", 9, 9" or lo, ID" are interconnected respectively by a liquidconducting pipe I, 8, 9 or H] of a relatively small diameter. The airspaces of these auxiliary tanks 1-l0' and 1-- lll" are connected to theair spaces of the water-filled tanks I and 2 by means of the airconducting pipes H' and I2 or II" and I2" respectively. I

As long as the rolling motion of the ship is to be damped by thearrangement described, the twoway cock is switched over by hand orautomatically in sympathy with the rolling motion. In consequence ofthis the blower 5 will propel a certain 45 quantity of air from the tankat the one side of the ship into the oppositely positioned tank at theother side of the ship and return, this propelling taking place duringeach oscillation period of the ship. However, as the oscillation periodsof the ship are relatively small, for example 20 seconds, and as the airconducting pipes H, H, [2' and 12" as well as the liquid conductingpipes 1-H] are very strongly throttled, practically only the watermasses of the tanks l and 2 will participate in the described mutualpropelling movement. In order to entirely prevent movement of the liquidin the auxiliary tank devices II totally, during this periodical dampingthe rolling of the ship, the conducting pipes I I I I", I2 and I2" maybe closed by the valves I3 arranged in these pipes and operated forinstance by hand.

However, as soon as the device described is to be used for compensatinga constantly inclined position of the ship due to wind, unbalanced cargoor the like, the two-way cock 4a is switched over into the position, inwhich the blower 5 propels the air out of the tanks of the upwardsinclined side into the tanks of the downwards inclined side of the ship.The switching over of the cock 4av may be effected by hand orelectromagnetically according to the deflection of a device measuringthe middle inclination of the ship about its longitudinal axis. Incontradistinction to the above described damping of rolling, thepropelling of air in one and the same direction, when the ship assumes aconstantly inclined position, will continue for a longer time interval,i. e. for several minutes until the inclined position of the ship iscompensated partly or wholly. In such case, the valves I3 being opened,the air of the auxiliary tanks 1', 8', 9', ID and 1", 8", 9", I0" willpass through the narrow pipes I I, I I", I2 and I2" respectively intothe main tanks I and 2 so as to participate in the compensating of theinclined position of the ship. It will be understood that the airdelivered from the tanks of the upwardly inclined side into theoppositely positioned tanks of the downwardly inclined side causes thewater or the oil of the tanks to flow through the pipes 33, I, 8, 9 andIII into the tanks of the upwardly inclined side. The opening of theabove mentioned valves I3 at the beginning of compensating a constantlyinclined position of the ship may also be elfected automatically, forexample by an electromagnet, actuated by a well-known device measuringthe middle inclined position of the ship about its longitudinal axis.

It will be evident, that all the tanks may be water-filled and may haveapertures opening downward to the sea, in which case the liquidconducting pipes, designated in the drawing with 3, I, 8, 9 and III,will be omitted. With such an arrangement the sea water will pass in andout of the tanks through said apertures according to the quantities ofair, delivered from one side of the ship to the other by the blower 5.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a tank stabilizing apparatus for ships, the

I combination of a plurality of tanks adapted to contain liquid andlocated on one side of a ship, conduits connecting the air spaces ofsaid tanks, additional tanks adapted to contain liquid and located onthe other side of said ship, conduits connecting the air spaces of saidadditional tanks, conduits extending transversely of said ship andconnecting the liquid containing spaces of each pair of oppositelylocated tanks, an air conduit extending transversely of the ship andconnecting the air spaces of a pair of oppositely located tanks, apropelling device connected with said transverse air conduit, and meansfor controlling said propelling device.

2. In a tank stabilizing apparatus for ships, the combination of aplurality of tanks adapted to contain liquid and located on one side ofa ship, conduits connecting the air spaces of said tanks, 10 said airconduits having comparatively small diameters for the purpose ofthrottling the flow of air therethrough, additional tanks adapted tocontain liquid and located on the opposite side of said ship, conduitsconnecting the air spaces of said additional tanks, said last named airconduits having comparatively small diameters for the purpose ofthrottling the flow of air therethrough, conduits extending transverselyof the ship and connecting the liquid containing spaces 01' each pair ofoppositely located tanks, an air conduit extending transversely of theship and connecting the air spaces of a pair of oppositely locatedtanks,

a propelling device connected with said transverse air conduit, andmeans for controlling said propelling device.

3. In a tank stabilizing apparatus for ships, the combination of aplurality of tanks adapted to contain liquid and located on one side ofa ship, conduits connecting the air spaces of said tanks, additionaltanks adapted to contain liquid and located on the other side of saidship, conduits connecting the air spaces of said additional tanks,conduits extending transversely of said ship and connecting the liquidcontaining spaces of each pair of oppositely located tanks, an airconduit extending transversely of the ship and connecting the air spacesof a pair of oppositely located tanks, a propelling device connectedwith said transverse air conduit, means for controlling said 0propelling device, and control valves in the conduits connecting the airspaces of the tanks on one side of the ship, and in the conduitsconnecting the air spaces of the tanks on the other side of said ship.

4. A tank stabilizing device for ships, comprising a first pair ofliquid filled tanks oppositely positioned along the two sides of theship, a circulation conduit connected with said tanks, a constantlyrunning propelling device connected with said conduit by means of atwo-way-cock, means for controlling said two-way cock in accordance withthe inclination of the; ship, additional pairs of oppositely positionedtanks adapted to contain oil and arranged along the opposite sides ofthe ship, transverse conduits connecting the liquid spaces of each ofthese additional pairs of tanks and air conduits connecting the airspaces of said additional tanks with the air spaces of said first pairof tanks in such a way that the air spaces of the tanks arranged alongthe same side of the ship communicate with each other.

HERMANN HORT.

